Tuesday 5 April 2011 13.01 EDT
First published on Tuesday 5 April 2011 13.01 EDT

Libyan rebels have received a crucial financial boost, selling an estimated $125m (£77m) worth of oil to a Swiss trading company – the first export of Libyan oil in nearly three weeks.

The 1m-barrel consignment is due to be loaded on to a tanker near the key eastern oil port of Tobruk on Wednesday. It will provide essential funds to bolster the political credibility of the revolutionary council, allowing it to pay wages to the large numbers of people who had relied on government salaries, as well as funding imports of food and, possibly, weapons. The sale will also help the revolutionary leadership project itself as a viable alternative to the regime in Tripoli.

A revolutionary council spokeswoman, Iman Bughaigis, declined to comment on the oil shipment, saying it was a security matter.

But the rebel leadership says Qatar has agreed to market oil from fields in the east of Libya which are no longer under Muammar Gaddafi's control.

The Gulf state is one of four countries to recognise the revolutionary council in Benghazi as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people.

The oil was shipped from a terminal near Tobruk, close to the Egyptian border. Two other terminals further west, near Brega and Ras Lanuf, have been fought over for weeks and partially damaged.

Government forces pushed the rebels back from Brega again on Tuesday, continuing the stalemate in the conflict.

As oil reached $122 a barrel, a two-and-a-half year high, there were reports of other tankers in the area, possibly waiting to see whether this order can be safely transported, in what the rebel forces hope will be the first of many oil exports.

The rebel-controlled Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco), which severed ties with the state-owned National Oil Company and is therefore exempt from the sanctions against assets controlled by Gaddafi's government, is thought to have an additional 2m barrels of oil stored at Tobruk's terminal – worth about $250m at current prices. The Gaddafi-controlled parts of Libya have not exported any oil since 18 March.

In time, Agoco should be able to increase its daily output to about 150,000 barrels – about $18m worth – according to Samuel Ciszuk, senior Middle East energy analyst at consultancy IHS Global Insight.

This is well below the 300,000 to 400,000 barrels Agoco was producing before the insurgency – foreign experts have fled the country, while the fighting has left many Libyan workers unwilling or unable to continue – but is still a very valuable source of income, Ciszuk says.

"This is extremely significant for the opposition. If it can establish an independent revenue stream, it will take things from an ad hoc rebellion to something more sustainable. In the long term they need to make money from something, to pay people, to keep going, so people can eat and to stop defections. This, in turn, might further dishearten people around the Gaddafi regime, if they can see that the rebels aren't going to go away."

Ciszuk believes oil offers the rebels by far the most promising source of income as Libya has no other easily convertible commodity. As a result, the region can expect Gaddafi to step up attacks on oil fields and infrastructure, he said.

Although the destination of the oil cargo due to leave on Wednesday remains a mystery, it is known to have been acquired by Vitol, one of the world's biggest energy traders, and is likely to end up in southern Europe, which consumes four-fifths of Libya's oil.

Michelle Wiese Bockman, markets editor of Lloyd's List, the shipping news and data provider, said the shipment provided "a signal that Libya is open to international trade and shipping. It will send a message to other tanker owners."

Although the rebels are not known to have agreed any more oil exports, there are plenty of rumours that more deals could be signed soon.

"A couple of ships have been seen loitering around the area and there are various anecdotal reports from ship brokers," said Bockman, who was hung up on when she called the Suezmax tanker to ask where its oil consignment was going.

"This is a particularly sensitive shipment. I don't very often call up to ask a ship where it's headed but I've never been hung up on before."